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Engineering Ethics Education: A Comparative Study of Japan and Malaysia

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Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a comparative study in which students’ perceived attainment of the objectives of an engineering ethics education and their attitude towards engineering ethics were investigated and compared. The investigation was carried out in Japan and Malaysia, involving 163 and 108 engineering undergraduates respectively. The research method used was based on a survey in which respondents were sent a questionnaire to elicit relevant data. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed on the data. The results of the analyses showed that the attainment of the objectives of engineering ethics education and students’ attitude towards socio-ethical issues in engineering were significantly higher and positive among Japanese engineering students compared to Malaysian engineering students. Such findings suggest that a well-structured, integrated, and innovative pedagogy for teaching ethics will have an impact on the students’ attainment of ethics education objectives and their attitude towards engineering ethics. As such, the research findings serve as a cornerstone to which the current practice of teaching and learning of engineering ethics education can be examined more critically, such that further improvements can be made to the existing curriculum that can help produce engineers that have strong moral and ethical characters.

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Acknowledgements

This study is funded by Sumitomo Foundation, Japan through Japan related Research Project Fiscal Year 2015 (Code: 158451).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Art, Computing and Creative Industry, Sultan Idris Education University, 35900, Tanjung Malim, Perak, Malaysia

    Balamuralithara Balakrishnan

  2. Academic Foundations Programs, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Nonoichi, Ishikawa, Japan

    Fumihiko Tochinai & Hidekazu Kanemitsu

Authors
  1. Balamuralithara Balakrishnan
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  2. Fumihiko Tochinai
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  3. Hidekazu Kanemitsu
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Correspondence to Balamuralithara Balakrishnan.

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Balakrishnan, B., Tochinai, F. & Kanemitsu, H. Engineering Ethics Education: A Comparative Study of Japan and Malaysia. Sci Eng Ethics 25, 1069–1083 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-018-0051-3

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